I knew what my first kiss should be like, unfortunately this wasn’t it. I hoped it would be under the soft light of the moon, with his arms around me, the stars shining brightly over us. He would whisper that he loved me, and then very gently, full of the truth of his whispered promise, he would kiss me, and I would know that this was more real than any other thing in this world.

But that is not how it is. We are sitting in the broad daylight, on the bleachers at school. He said that he wanted to watch the track meet. But now, well… when he first kissed me my first thought was not, ‘Oh my gosh, he’s the one.’ No. instead my first thought was, “This guy, had fish for lunch.” completely unromantic I know, but there it is. Our lips had only been touching, when he became hungry for more. His hands seemed to be everywhere all at once, I was tempted to open my eyes and make sure that this guy, that I thought I had loved, was not secretly some kind of mutant octopus. The entire world could see us, and I must admit that I was slightly embarrassed. But it all came to an abrupt end when he slipped his tongue into my mouth. This was not what I expected from my sweet friend, his tongue was slimy, and tasted like the fish that he had undoubtedly eaten before. This contributed to the image in my head, of my making-out with an octopus in the bleachers, while the tanned track team came to a halt and stared. Before I could stop myself, I giggle. He pulled away and looked at me, “What’s funny?” I shook my head, “I have to go home.” I left him there. And now that I look back on it, I wonder if I could forget the whole thing? Can I redo my first kiss? I suppose not, but I would like to. How can I tell me friends? That the only thing I could think of to describe it, was a visit to the aquarium? Do I have to count that as my first kiss? Really?